And he said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Jehovah lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.

And Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise and fall upon us. For as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments on their camels' necks.

And the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you and your son, and your son's son also. For you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.

And his concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son whose name he called Abimelech.

And it happened as soon as Gideon was dead, the sons of Israel turned again and went lusting after the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god.

I pray you, speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem: Which is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

And his mother's brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem with all these words. And their hearts were bent toward Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.

The trees went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, Reign over us.

And the trees said to the fig tree, You come and reign over us.

Then the trees said to the vine, You come and reign over us.

Then all the trees said to the bramble-bush, You come and reign over us.

And you have risen up against my father's house today, and have killed his sons, seventy persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his slave woman, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;

And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?

And it shall be in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, it shall be that you shall rise early and set upon the city. And behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them as you desire.

And Zebul said to him, Where is your mouth now, with which you said, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? Is not this the people whom you have despised? I pray you, go out now and fight with them.

And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities which are called Havoth-jair to this day in the land of Gilead.

And that year they troubled and oppressed the sons of Israel; all the sons of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead, for eighteen years.

And the sons of Israel said to Jehovah, We have sinned. Do You to us whatever is good in Your eyes; only deliver us, we pray You, today.

And the people and rulers of Gilead said to one another, What man is there who will begin to fight against the sons of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, For this reason we turn again to you now, so that you may go with us and fight against the sons of Ammon, and be our head over all the people of Gilead.

And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Jehovah is witness between us if we do not do so according to your word.

And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon. And Israel said to him, We pray you, let us pass through your land to my place.

Will you not possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whomever Jehovah our God shall drive out from before us, we will possess them.

And it happened at the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her his vow which he had vowed. And she knew no man. And it is a custom in Israel,

And the men of Ephraim were called together and went northward, and said to Jephthah, Why did you go over to fight against the sons of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house upon you with fire.

And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy ass colts. And he judged Israel eight years.

And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and did not bear.

And Manoah prayed to Jehovah and said, O, my Lord, let the Man of God, whom You sent, come again to us and teach us what we shall do to the boy that shall be born.

And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her.

And Manoah said to the Angel of Jehovah, I pray You, let us keep You until we have made a kid ready for You.

And Manoah said to the Angel of Jehovah, What is Your name, so that when Your sayings come to pass we may do You honor?

And the Angel of Jehovah said to him, Why do you ask after My name in this way? Yea, it is Wonderful.

But his wife said to him, If Jehovah were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt offering and a food offering at our hands, neither would He have showed us all these things, nor have told us such things as these at this time.

And his father and his mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she pleases me very much.

And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and he tore it as he would have torn a kid; and nothing was in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

And it happened on the seventh day they said to Samson's wife, Lure your husband so that he may tell the riddle to us, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you called us to take what we have? Is it not so?

And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey, and what stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.

But Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had served as his friend.

And her father said, I truly thought that you utterly hated her, and I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she is? Please, let her be for you instead of her.

And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? And they answered, We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.

Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us? And he said to them, As they have done to me, so I have done to them.

He came to Lehi, and the Philistines shouted against him. And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and the cords on his arms became as flax that has been burned with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.

And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass I have killed a thousand men.

But God cut open a hollow place and water came out there. And he drank, and his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore, its name is called Fountain of the Praying One, which is in Lehi to this day.

And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took hold of the leaves of the gate of the city and the two posts, and picked them up, with the bar, and put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron.

And it happened afterwards, he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Lure him and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, so that we may tie him to afflict him. And each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.

And Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then I shall be weak and be as another man.

And he said to her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall be weak and be as another man.

And she said to him, How can you say, I love you, and your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me in what your great strength lies.

And she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he did not know that Jehovah had departed from him.

And the people saw him and praised their god. For they said, Our god has delivered our enemy into our hand, and the destroyer of our country, who killed many of us.

And when their hearts were merry, it happened that they said, Call for Samson and he will make sport for us. And they called for Samson out of the prison house. And he made sport for them, and they set him between the pillars.

And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver which were taken from you, about which you cursed, and spoke of also in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. Behold, I took it. And his mother said, Be blessed of Jehovah, my son.

And the man went out of the city from Bethlehem-judah to live where he could find a place. And he came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.

And the Levite was content to live with the man, and the young man was to him as one of his sons.

Then Micah said, Now I know that Jehovah will do me good, since I have a Levite as my priest.

And he said to them, This is how Micah deals with me, and has hired me, and I am his priest.

And the priest said to them, Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before Jehovah.

And the five men departed and came to Laish, and saw the people in it, how they lived carelessly, as the Sidonians do, quiet and secure. And there was no judge in the land who might put them to shame in a thing. And they were far from the Sidonians, and had no business with any man.

And they said, Arise, so that we may go up against them. For we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good. And will you sit quietly? Do not be too lazy to go; enter to possess the land.

When you go, you shall come to a people feeling safe, and to a large land. For God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything in the earth.

And they went up and pitched in Kirjath-jearim, in Judah. Therefore, they called that place A Camp of Dan to this day. Behold, it is behind Kirjath-jearim.

Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brothers, Did you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and household gods, and an engraved image and a molten image? And now consider what you have to do.

And they said to him, Be quiet, lay your hand on your mouth and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?

And he said, You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. And what more do I have? And what is this you say to me, What ails you?

And the sons of Dan said to him, Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon you and you lose your life with the lives of your household.

But the man would not stay that night, but he rose up and left, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem. And there were with him two saddled asses. His concubine also was with him.

They were beside Jebus, and the day was far gone. And the servant said to his master, Please come, and let us turn in to this city of the Jebusites and stay in it.

And his master said to him, We will not turn aside here into the city of a stranger that is not of the sons of Israel. We will pass over to Gibeah.

And he said to his servant, Come and let us draw near one of these places to stay all night, in Gibeah or in Ramah.

And they passed on and went their way. And the sun went down on them beside Gibeah, which is of Benjamin.

And he said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem-judah to the side of mount Ephraim. I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem-judah, but I am going to the house of Jehovah. And there is no man who receives me into his house.

Yet here is both straw and food for our asses. And there is bread and wine also for me, and for your slave woman, and for the young man who is with your servants. There is no lack of anything.

And he said to her, Up, and let us be going. But there was no answer. Then the man took her on an ass, and the man rose up and went to his place.

Then all the sons of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, to Jehovah in Mizpeh.

And the men of Gibeah rose against me and set upon the house all around me at night. They intended to kill me. And they raped my concubine, and she is dead.

And all people rose as one man, saying, Let no man go to his tent, and do not let any of us turn to his house.

And now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah, going against it by lot.

And every man of Israel was gathered against the city, all together as one man.

And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?

And the sons of Israel rose and went up to the house of God and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the sons of Benjamin? And Jehovah said, Judah first.

And the sons of Israel went up against the sons of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in order against Gibeah, as at other times.

And the sons of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city. And they began to strike some of the people and to kill, as at other times, in the highways, one of which goes up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

And the sons of Benjamin said, They are beaten before us as at the first. But the sons of Israel said, Let us flee and draw them from the city to the highways.

And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons. For they said, Surely they are stricken down before us as in the first battle.

And the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, Not one of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin for a wife.

And the sons of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that did not come up with the congregation to Jehovah? For they had made a great oath concerning him who did not come up to Jehovah to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

And the sons of Israel repented themselves for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that did not come up to Mizpeh to Jehovah? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.

And this is the thing that you shall do. You shall utterly destroy every male and every woman who has lain with man.

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had known no man by lying with any male. And they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

However, we may not give them wives of our daughters. For the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.

Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of Jehovah in Shiloh yearly on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.

And it shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, we will say to them, Be favorable to them for our sakes, because we did not reserve each man a wife in the war. For if you did not give to them at this time, you would be guilty.

And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each one to her mother's house. May Jehovah deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

And both of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?

And Ruth of Moab said to Naomi, Let me now go to the field and glean ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said to her, Go, my daughter.

And Boaz said to his servant who was set over the reapers, Whose girl is this?